Government to crack down on overspending in civil service

THE President is cracking down on overspending in government departments, and new rules could force officials to pay for extra spending out of their own pockets or even face prosecution, reports said yesterday.

Politis said yesterday the Ministry of Finance had issued a circular to all government departments pointing out that unjustified deviations from the approved budgets would no longer go unquestioned, and that the public officials involved could be asked to pay up or face criminal prosecution under article 105, which provides for jail sentences.

According to the circular, President Tassos Papadopoulos gave clear and strict instructions for the enforcement of the budget law in order to avoid overspending, as well as assigning responsibility and recovering the expenses from those who illegally authorised or ordered them.

One regular deviation concerns overtime pay.

The budget usually provides for a set number of hours, but department heads often authorise double the amount, which results in the need for a supplementary budget to be approved by the House.

A second example is the purchase of services or materials without a specific provision in the budget.

This again throws the state off its programme and forces it to spend more than the approved funds, Politis said.

The circular stressed that in 2002 there had been a large number of overspends. Many had been unavoidable – pay rises, VAT increase, etc – but there were many that were completely unjustified and needed to be covered at the last moment.

The Finance Ministry circular noted that such practices tended to legalise unacceptable, illegal and unconstitutional procedures.

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